Microfinance Programme Activities

In this blog, our Microfinance Programme Manager talks about his daily work, the people he works with and the skills he transfers to make it successful.

My name is Sovann Thet. I am not original from Siem Reap. I am from Banteay Meanchey, in the west of Cambodia next to Khmer-Thai border. I have worked in the Microfinance sector since 2007 with Seilanithih Micro Finance Institution and I have been Microfinance Programme Manager at JWOC for one year.

I am very happy to work for JWOC, especially for the Microfinance Programme and with the Microfinance team. There are 21 JWOC Scholarship students in the team, and most of them are women. It is good for the programme because most of JWOC’s borrowers are women. Our students volunteer as Loan Officers and build good relationship with the borrowers. Some of them are studying in second year, some are in third year and some of them are in final year. Most of them study in the field of finance and banking, and some are in the field of management. They are very helpful. I train them on how to work in the microloan sector before they start working with me.

Two Borrowers who both have vegetable stalls at the local market

There are 14 Volunteer Loan Officers working every Sunday to help with the weekly collection from our borrowers. Before starting to do the collection, I always have a short meeting with them. The meeting is about who will go to collect from which village and assign some additional task for them to do. They don’t only collect money from borrowers, but they also have to advertise new loans, help with organizing and processing loans, do business visits with borrowers, do baseline surveys at the beginning of the loan cycle, and impact surveys at the end of the cycle.

Sovann and the team register new Borrowers

One of our Volunteer Loan Officers, Mengty, said, “I am very happy to work as volunteer at JWOC. I learn a lot of experiences from working in this position, money checking, communicating with local authority and borrowers. I can apply my skills and knowledge which I learn from teachers at university.”

Mengty, shown here processing loan applications

Now the Microfinance Programme has 67 active borrowers. There are 21 borrowers in the November 2012 Cycle and 46 in the January 2013 Cycle. First time borrowers who get a loan from JWOC are very happy because they also get basic hygiene training from our Clean Water Team and get hygiene packs. They are also provided the training of how to start business with a presentation by me.

Second time borrowers will get filter training from the Clean Water Team, and can buy filters at a subsidized price. They also get the training on how to use their second loan successfully from the JWOC Office Manager.

Recently, we have a new Project Assistant, Tola, who helps with the programme. I trained him on how to enter data into the Microfinance system, and baseline and impact surveys database. I trained him on how the Microfinance Programme is run. He is also in charge of checking and counting money from Volunteer Loan Officers, when they return from the field - sometimes he helps them with collections.  So last week, I assigned him to do advertising for a new loan cycle in our target area.

Tola helps with loan collections in the field

In conclusion, I am really happy that I have a chance to work for JWOC, especially for the Microfinance Programme because it fits to my major at University and my previous experience. 

Match in March Appeal!

Two years ago, JWOC ran a match appeal for Subscription Donations that raised over $10,000. This year, we’d like to beat that number! We are asking donors to set up a running donation which means JWOC can depend on your contribution each month. And better yet, your 12 month donation will become 13.

Everyone in the JWOC family values our Subscription Donors and to show our appreciation one of our supporters has generously offered to match the first month, dollar for dollar, of every regular-giving pledge set up in March. That amounts to 13 months of donations for the price of 12 for each donor who participates!

These smiling students attend our free Computer Classes

Communities around Siem Reap depend on JWOC to improve their economic situation and access needed services. Despite what we have accomplished together, there are more families and children who need our help. By becoming a Subscription Donor you help us keep our projects running.

Look at what we were able to do in February, in part because of support from people like you:

-Hygiene training in three primary schools

-50 Home Gardens in two villages

-Our first micro-loan cycle of the year

-Over 35 JWOC classes that educate and build skills

Gourds growing in new Home Gardens

 We value each donation and will always strive to obtain the greatest possible benefit from each dollar you entrust to us. And remember, if you are an American tax-payer, $20 a month x 12 months equals an annual tax deductible charitable donation of $240. 
 

Make a decision to become a JWOC Subscription Donor today! Click here to set up your monthly donation. 

Children listen intently during a hygiene training session

You can donate via PayPal by clicking the subscribe button or via Network for Good by checking the recurring donation box after following the link. You can select how much you want to give each month and you can change or cancel your gift at any time.
 

A little goes a long way in Cambodia. Many thanks to all of you who help us make a difference in peoples’ lives.

Community Liaison and Assistance Activities

In this post our newest JWOC Programme Manager, Konthea Mean, tells us about the Home Gardens Project and the monitoring work of our Volunteer Community Facilitators in the field.

Seedlings are started by the group leaders in each village

During the first month  working as a Community Liaison and Assistance (CLA) Programme Manager for JWOC, I  am  really pleased with what I have learned and participated with the team. In this program there are 12 Volunteer Community Facilitators working with me, who are JWOC scholarship students. Three of them work on Saturday and the rest work on Sunday. We have been working in two villages - Duon Un and Ta Kam in Duon Keo Commune where we do the Home Gardens Project.

One of our beneficiaries, Hea, with bitter gourd 

There are 25 people in each village who join the activity and they all were trained by the expert on how to make a home garden. With one group leader in each village, we provided them 5 kinds of seeds: tomato, cucumber, string bean, bitter gourd and eggplant. However, most of them choose only two or three kinds of seeds to plant because their gardens are small.

To follow up and assist in the project, we set up a schedule to monitor their activities in each village two times a month. Because our team is divided between Saturday and Sunday teams, and everyone wants to get involved in both places, we monitor each village in rotation. As we do the monitoring process, we found our beneficiaries in both villages paid attention very well on their gardens. They applied all the methods they learned from the training to real practice. Their plants are good and now most of our beneficiaries are collecting the vegetables for eating and for sale in the market. 

Sopheavy is part of the JWOC CLA team and monitors the Home Gardens Project

During our monitoring we found there are some diseases and insects destroying the crops. To solve these problems we conducted research and discussed with the trainer to provide solutions to our beneficiaries. Up to now all those problems are solved and almost 90% of the gardens are successful.

One of our beneficiaries, Mao, is a 62 year old woman in Ta Kam Village. She planted many kinds of crops in her garden and takes care of them every day. Unfortunately one day, when she was cooking in the kitchen, there were a few cows got into her garden and ate all the crops. We encouraged her to buy more seeds on her own and replant, to make a fence around the garden and be more careful. This week we visited Mao and saw her smiling face because her plants are growing well and will produce vegetables soon. We really appreciate her for all her effort. 

Konthea and Mao in the garden

Even though the JWOC Home Gardens Project in these two villages is going to finish soon, I expect to conduct this project in other villages in order to help more beneficiaries in the rural communities to increase their gardening skills to grow nutritious food and improve their economic situation.

Healthy tomato plants

Healthy cucumbers seem to be the easiest to grow

Garden in Ta Kam Village with good fence to keep the animals out

Activities in the Clean Water Project

In this post Clean Water Project Manager Seng writes about his experience during the first four months in the role, highlighting JWOC's work both in schools and in rural villages. 

I am very well and happy working with JWOC for 4 months. There are 19 scholarship students volunteering in my project, 9 students work on Saturday and the others work on Sunday.  Since I have been working at JWOC, I have done activities in two different places, at schools on Saturday and in the villages on Sunday. At school, we have done specialized training to all principals and one teacher of each school, representative of all teachers in the schools and are still providing Hygiene Training to students. 

There are four schools have been done, Krous, Kok Patry, Svay Donkum and Phom Thnol primary schools. There are more than 2000 students having been provided hygiene training. The students, teachers and the principals of schools are welcoming and very happy that because of us they have clean water to drink, enough water using in the class and knowledge of good hygiene practices. Please have a look at some photos of activities and achievements our team has done at school.

Teeth cleaning training

Hand washing training

Distributing hygiene packs and drinking bottles

For the villages, I have worked in three villages. I started at the end of Ta Kam village, doing filters training, and completed the whole village of Pong Ro village. But we cut down some steps of the projects for this village, just providing hygiene training, because we found that there were many wells and filters provided by other organizations after asking the village chief and getting the team to check through the whole village before putting the clean water project. It helps the villagers to know how to care for their health that help improve their lives. 

Now I have been processing the project in Kouk Beng village that is about 9 kilometers from JWOC, to the north. There are 273 households and there are many wells in this village but most of them are broken and the people still lack of good hygiene practice in their lives, maybe because other organizations have not provided them the hygiene training. We have seen three places to install new wells, where the families around are very poor and don’t have enough water to use. Repairing the broken wells will provide much help to the villagers in this village. I hope this village will be much changed after we finish our Clean Water project, because the village chief and the group leaders have been trying hard to help develop their village.

Below are some activities of the villages we have done.

Village hygiene training

Distributing hygiene packs

Well repair training

I am looking forward to writing to you again next time to tell you more about the work with the villages and schools!

To find out more about our Clean Water Project, take a look here- http://www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org/projects/clean-water/

Getting involved in 2013

Happy New Year!

At JWOC we are excited about everything 2013 holds and we would like you to be a part of it – this year we're asking you to make a New Year’s resolution to get others involved and make your support go even further.

We've got four simple ways you can get involved and help raise funds for JWOC...

1. Check if your employer will match your donation. Many do. There is a list of companies with established schemes here but it’s also worth checking directly – you might start something!

2. Write a review here. By writing a review you can help us find new donors. More and more people are using sites like GreatNonprofits.org to decide where to donate. Your reviews will let them know JWOC is a great choice.

3. iGive isn’t just for Christmas- they will give us money all year! By signing up to iGive you can raise funds for JWOC every time you shop online.

4. Spread the word by Liking and Sharing our posts on Facebook. With just a click you can help us reach new supporters.

We look forward to hearing from you in 2013!

With best wishes

The JWOC Team

P.S. If you’d like to make a pledge to donate directly you can sign up for a monthly subscription donation here. By donating each month you will provide great support to our ongoing projects.